West or Northwest? (Aurora, Naperville, Elgin: foreclosure, rent, credit) - Chicago Suburbs - Illinois (IL) - City-Data Forum

Nicol_77 · 05-21-2009, 11:40 AM

Hi

I have read a lot on the forum and like it so far.
We are a young couple with a 6 month old baby and with tight budget (up to 200k) looking for a newer home, at least 3BD/2BT.
My husband works in downtown and I am working close to O'hare.
We have realized that even in this market it is hard to find a newer build home within our budget.
We have looked all the suburbs (within an hour commute to downtown) and only a few places have what we are looking for.
We like a few Townhomes in Cary and more in Aurora/Naperville area.
Reading at this forum I learned that Aurora area that is in school district 204 is good, so that is the only area I was looking at.
We are not sure which is the better choice for us?
Can someone please give us an opinion of what will be the better move?
We are looking for a quiet place, but still not too far away from everything, want to walk often, will prefer if shopping is close and also need a place closer to Metra.
Do you think any of these places will fit the bill for us?
Or do you have any other sugestions?

Thanks

chet everett · 05-21-2009, 12:38 PM

Yep $200K is real hard to got much in 204, you are very unlikely to find anything that has much to walk to and even "newish" would be hard to come by. I would discourage you from looking at townhomes, even though some might be available in your price range and with the room count you want, as there is a good chance that you'd "out grow" that set up fast with a new baby / expanding family...

Cary is MUCH LONGER commute from downtown, and a VERY different feel, as it was very rural much more recently than the 204 area.

I am sure it is tough to shop with a 6 month old, and I have no idea if you have the skills / desire to attempt to find a house that might need some fixing up, but honestly that is the smartest thing to do now.

Further, if your have a $40,000 down payment that represents pretty much all your savings I am not entirely sure that I would encourage you to do anything that might not work out so well -- much better to find a place that is discounted and try to lock in some equity either through hardwork or tremendous shopping...

Good Luck!

CUBS07 · 05-21-2009, 01:14 PM

My wife and I were in the same boat. Started looking at townhomes for around 150-175 but then discovered we could have a nice SF home with a yard for around 200k. We recently purchased a home in South Hanover Park on the border of Bartlett for around 200k that was move in ready with a huge lot. The home is South of Stearns rd off County Farm. Lots of parks, forest preserves and shops within 1-4 miles away. Shopping on 59 in Bartlett,Army Trail in Carol Stream and Bloomindale and of course Barrington rd in Streamwood/North Hanover. Also about a mile to the Metra Station and 5 min to the Elgin O'hare expressway. Takes me 30 from home to Work near O'Hare.

Nicol_77 · 05-21-2009, 01:29 PM

We are driven by the idea that newer will be better, but unfortunately there is no newer SF in this price range, at least where we checked so far.
If we are able to find some SF which will require none or only minor fixing it will be worth checking it.
If you know a good property or can point us where to look for it, and if it is within this price range please let us know.

We will gladly explore that option too.

chet everett · 05-21-2009, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CUBS07

My wife and I were in the same boat. Started looking at townhomes for around 150-175 but then discovered we could have a nice SF home with a yard for around 200k. We recently purchased a home in South Hanover Park on the border of Bartlett for around 200k that was move in ready with a huge lot. The home is South of Stearns rd off County Farm. Lots of parks, forest preserves and shops within 1-4 miles away. Shopping on 59 in Bartlett,Army Trail in Carol Stream and Bloomindale and of course Barrington rd in Streamwood/North Hanover. Also about a mile to the Metra Station and 5 min to the Elgin O'hare expressway. Takes me 30 from home to Work near O'Hare.

I think there are pcokets of more affordable homes that DO get overlooked. I know that section of DuPage is not as affluent as some, but it is way from the worst spot in the region. If you are realistic about a time frame and work to build up the neighborhood this is good strategy. The potential to sell a SFD at a profit is much great than a townhomem, and it you put the full court press to find a distressed seller you can do even better...

Steve-o · 05-21-2009, 08:18 PM

Warrenville and Winfield are either right on the Metra lines or close to them. Theyre safe, quiet towns and are within a 5-10 minute drive to Naperville and all the shopping you can shake a stick at.

Avengerfire · 05-21-2009, 11:30 PM

Why do you need a newer house?

Many of these have poison Chinese drywall (built in the last 3-4 years)...

Be very careful.

chet everett · 05-22-2009, 06:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avengerfire

Why do you need a newer house?

Many of these have poison Chinese drywall (built in the last 3-4 years)...

Be very careful.

I see LOTS of construction sites in the region. The tags on 99% of the drywall I see are from TWO US based companies, neither of which import any of their drywall from China.

DIY: Identifying Defective Chinese Drywall - Danny Lipford

Fear mongering is the LAST thing the construction products business needs!

HomeStager · 05-22-2009, 09:36 AM

Chet,

The other poster wasn't fear mongering. One of the beauties of having a tight nit community like those at city-data, is the sharing and pooling of information and people looking out for each other.

Warnings about CDW are valid and need to be taken seriously.

The good news for the OP is that homes with the corrosion symptoms, have not been identified in Illinios to date.

If you are in construction, you should study up better on some law suits against U.S. manufacturers using flyash, over their product, producing the same problems, the dank stuff from China is. Even on one of the U.S. manufacturers safty data sheets, where flyash from scrubbers is used here, it says, the product is stable under normal conditions. When met with heat or humidity it can produce dangerous effects.

The problem is seeming to be not so much where the drywall is made, but how it is made. Synthetic gypsum, may not be the "green solution" to recyling toxic waste from coal-fired power plants, people intended it to be. Governement investigations are underfunded and tooo slow to get word out. Law firms doing the independent research are keeping their findings private for the suits.

Buyer beware is never a poor adage to remind people of, especially when it comes to one of the largest investments people will make, and where they will be living with their children.

There are hundreds of thousands of families throughout the U.S. who wish they were warned about CDW before they bought their new construction homes.

Now it's up to the OP if they want to research the construction materials used before they buy.

If those in your local industry are using safe and sound good products, you have nothing to fear.

It's true the new construction industry is hurting in these down times. So are every day people and all the more they can not afford to make potentially, financially, devastating decisions when buying a home.

Those that bought homes constructed with CDW have worthless homes, they can not safely live in or sell. Their belongings/furnishings are all contaminated or destroyed from corrosion. They have medical bills piling up. They may be facing foreclosure and financial credit ruin, even though they can afford their mortgage. They can not afford it and rent for a safe haven at the same time.

Be thankfull the problem has not infected your area.

Suppliers in other states are desparately trying to find ways to unload what they still have of the dank board for cheap, before it gets banned and recalled. Bans already happened in Norfolk Virginia. Perhaps you should be warning your local industry friends to be on the look out for it, finding its way into your area. Home building and buying is serious business.

chet everett · 05-22-2009, 10:30 AM

What no 800 number for the class action law firm?

As I stated, I see lots of construction sites in IL. Drywall is heavy and expensive to transport to the middle of this country and no Chinese drywall is in wide use.

Anything else in fear mongering. Avengerfire is frequent poster on many of the same threads that I post. We often agree. I hope he is mostly just joking a bit...

I sincerely doubt there are hundreds of thousands of families that have Chinese drywall and I have my doubts about claims of any other problems with any other drywall.